On Saturday, my friend Theresa had an open garden for the Sacramento Cactus and Succulent Society. I’d visited before (and I posted about it here) but every time I pull into her driveway, I go “wow.” It’s not only the size of her property — almost two acres, enormous by my suburban standards — but also the architecture of her house.
This is her front door:
A side patio with her collection of potted mesembs:
As you can see, Theresa is serious about
mesembs, especially
conophytums. The latter range from small to tiny, and you’d think that they’re easy to kill, considering how fragile they look. Let’s put it this way: It wouldn’t take
me long to kill them, but Theresa has figured out what their cultivation needs are.
Theresa and her husband built their Southwest-inspired home 30+ years ago. It would look right at home in Arizona or New Mexico, but in Northern California, you almost never see this style of architecture. The burnt orange color makes a fantastic backdrop for plants, as you’ll see below.
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| The pool... |
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| ...is pretty dreamy, too! |
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| The nooks and crannies near the house are in the same Southwest style |
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| That’s an outdoor shower there on the left |
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| Koi pond and patio covered with solar panels |
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| Spiral cactus (Cereus forbesii f. spiralis) |
Behind the pool is Theresa’s little greenhouse:
A few photos of potted plants outside the greenhouse:
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| Bonsai’d Yucca gloriosa |
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| Crested aeonium |
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| Perfectly grown dudleyas |
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| Aloe parvula |
The greenhouse isn’t large, but it’s packed with small treasures, most of which I know very little about:
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| Tylecodon buchholzianus |
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| Conophytum wettsteinii |
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| Adromischus marianiae |
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| More conophytums |
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| Medusoid euphorbia |
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| Aloe laeta, a beautiful but tender species from Madagascar |
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| Homalocephala polycephala, the Mojave cottontop cactus (very hard to keep alive in cultivation) |
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| Rebutia rauschii |
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| Tephrocactus bonnieae (formerly Puna bonnieae) |
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| Thelocactus hexaedrophorus |
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| Echinocereus (flowering) and other cacti |
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| Mammillaria bocasana |
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| Collection of Ariocarpus, one of the most sought-after cactus genus |
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| Some ariocarpus are so, hmmmm, curious looking that only a collector could love them |
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| Back of the greenhouse in the photo above |
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| Massive clump of aeonium; ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens) on the right |
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| Aloes, ice plants, aeoniums, ocotillo, and more |
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| Opuntia gomei ‘Old Mexico’ |
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| Opuntia gomei ‘Old Mexico’ |
Back patio, garage on the right (behind the tree):
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| Back patio |
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Urn orchids (Bletilla striata)
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The area next to the back patio and garage is a succulent garden, mostly cacti but a couple of aloes as well:
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| A variety of cactus, including several forms of prickly pear |
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| The clump on the right is Opuntia cochenillifera (garage partially visible in the back) |
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| Aloidendron ramosissimum, with a totem pole cactus (monstrose form of Lophocereus schottii) in the front |
Moving farther away from the house:
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| The largest Mangave ‘Tooth Fairy’ I’ve ever seen, surrounded by Penstemon heterophyllus ‘Margarita BOP’ |
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| Mangave ‘Freckles and Speckles’ bulbil. It broke off when I touched it, so I got to take it home. |
In addition to succulents, Theresa, a master gardener, also grows a wide range of perennials and shrubs, including many California natives. My attention, however, immediately went to the flamboyant exotics, like this one:
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| Grevillea ‘Kings Rainbow’ |
Something that attracted a great deal of attention was what’s left of a bloomed-out octopus agave (Agave vilmoriniana). Its flower stalk was packed with bulbils, small plantlets that are genetic clones of the mother plant:
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| Agave vilmoriniana flower stalk with thousands of bulbils, another smaller specimen of A. vilmoriniana on the right |
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| Several visitors took bulbils home with them |
In nature, the bulbils stay on the flower stalk until they’ve reached a viable size, then fall off and root into the ground. Even if only one in ten bulbils ends up surviving, that’s still a huge success for the plant.
In cultivation, bulbils root readily — many of them already have rudimentary roots when you pop them off the flower stalk.
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| You could open a business selling nothing but A. vilmoriniana |
Below is another A. vilmoriniana in Theresa’s garden, with the remains of an old flower stalk on the right. Theresa has had multiple generations over the years. A. vilmoriniana is one of the most garden-friendly agave species; the leaves are soft and bendy, and there are no stiff terminal spines or marginal teeth.
Soon the folks who took home bulbils will have their own octopus agave growing in their garden. And when it flowers and produces bulbils, they can share the wealth with their friends and neighbors. Truly, the gift that keeps on giving.
© Gerhard Bock, 2026. All rights reserved. To receive all new posts by email, please subscribe here.
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